Watermelon Slim “Church of The Blues” review/Making A Scene

Making A Scene – Richard Ludmerer

William P. Homans III was born in Boston but raised in North Carolina where he first heard the blues. He rejected his family’s career aspirations and served in Vietnam. When he returned home in 1973 he became involved in “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” and recorded an anti-war album called “Merry Airbrakes”. Homans worked as a forklift driver, newspaper reporter, watermelon farmer and truck driver, while still learning to play guitar and harmonica. He once “said that watermelons were the one crop on which he never lost money”. He didn’t record again until 1999 when he recorded an EP with his then band “Fried Okra Jones”.

Homans’ first national release under the name Watermelon Slim was 2002’s “Big Shoes To Fill”. He followed up with 2004’s “Up Close and Personal”, with his band now called The Workers, featuring fourteen Delta and country blues originals, and four covers.